How to Improve your Reputation with Effective Social Media Management

E-BOOK

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Think social media is just for politicians and millennials? Think again.The digital transformation is complete for most businesses — and a strong presence on social media is more critical than ever to business success.

More than three billion people around the world use social media every month. And Sherpa Marketing found that more people follow brands on social media than they do celebrities.

In this eBook, we’ll take a closer look at the way in which social media can influence consumer opinion about your brand, and what you can do to help steer the conversation in the right direction. You’ll learn:

• The risks of not managing your social presence

• Why businesses must focus on social media management

• Challenges and considerations for enterprises

• How to select the right social media management solution for your business

What happens on social channels is shaping consumer sentiment about your products and services, and ultimately, your brand. Social media is where online reputation begins.

3 billion people around the world use social media every month.

80% of people follow at least one business on Instagram alone.

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The Risks of Not Managing Your Social PresenceA negative post can annihilate a stellar reputation in minutes.

Remember United Airlines? A post of a passenger being dragged off a flight went viral, and the company’s reputation plummeted, causing its stock to fall 1.1% and its market value took a $1 billion nosedive — all in one day.

45% of people share negative customer experiences on social media.

Source: Dimensional Research

Everyone is Talking

Your customers are discussing your brand on social channels, and if you’re not listening and responding, your reputation — and revenue — are at risk.

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But it’s not enough to simply monitor and advertise — you have to respond.

Gartner found that not answering customers on social channels can lead to a 15% increase in the churn rate for existing customers. And timing is everything: Nearly half of Twitter users surveyed (42%) expect companies to respond to an inquiry within an hour.

The good news is 71% of consumers1 are more likely to recommend a brand to others if they have a positive experience with it on social media. Real-time monitoring, alerting and responding is essential to identifying problems and resolving them quickly, before they have a negative impact on the perception of your brand.

Responding Quickly to Customer Complaints Makes People Willing to Pay More in the Future

A study of tweets to airlines shows that when a tweet is answered in five minutes or less, the customer will pay almost $20 more for a ticket on that airline in the future2.

$2.33$3.19

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$19.83

60 mins or less 21–59 mins 6–20 mins 5 mins or less

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Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Jeff BezosCEO of Amazon

1 SocialMediaToday2 Twitter Blog

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Increased Brand AwarenessSocial media is a cost-efficient method of promoting content and increasing the visibility of your brand, enabling you to engage with a broad audience of potential customers.

More Inbound TrafficSocial media channels serve as gateways to your website and content, driving click throughs, visits, leads and revenue, either online or in person.

Improved Search Engine RankingsPromoting your content on social media can generate authentic, high-quality links to your website from influencers, increasing site authority — an important ranking factor in Google’s search algorithms.

Brand LoyaltyOne-to-one interaction with customers and more immediate response to customer concerns via social demonstrates your dedication to great customer service, while building trust with your audience, humanizing your brand and inspiring good will toward your company.

Better Customer ExperienceSocial media is a goldmine of “dark” unstructured data that provides meaningful insights into customer experience. Social media management enables careful analysis of this data to help you fine-tune operations and service levels, creating a virtuous cycle of constant improvement across your organization or at specific locations.

The Business of Social MediaA strong social presence has benefits well beyond marketing and metrics. Let’s take a closer look:

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Challenges and Considerations for EnterprisesB2B and B2C enterprises are catching up on incorporating social media in their marketing strategies, but they face very different challenges.

With hundreds or thousands of locations — each with its own social presence and local community — considerations about resources, data management and governance are much more significant for large national or global brands.

Resources — People, Process and Technology

The 2017 State of Social Marketing Report, which shares survey results from 2,738 social media marketing professionals from 111 countries, reports 44.8% of brands surveyed need analytics software to help with analyzing data from social, and 44.2% need more personnel specifically focused on social media.

To make matters worse, social media doesn’t sleep. According to research from Convince and Convert, 57% of consumers contacting a brand on social expect the same response time at night and on weekends as during normal business hours — within 30-60 minutes.

Failing to respond promptly to a viral post or negative comment left after hours can have significant impact on your reputation.

57% of consumers contacting a brand on social media expect a response time of 30–60 minutes — 24 hours a day.

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Data Management — or Lack Thereof

Social media channels are packed full of data that can lead to amazing insights about your customers — but how do you collect and analyze data across the web for all your locations when resources are already taxed?

The State of Social Marketing Report found measuring ROI was listed as the top challenge for social media marketers, and 24.4% struggle to use social data to inform marketing strategies. The report suggests comprehensive analytics solutions can solve this problem by simplifying social data collection and analysis — but point solutions may be cost prohibitive for some enterprises.

What About Governance?Control over approval workflows and use of approved content is critical to protect your overall reputation; but many social media management tools aren’t built to accommodate large, distributed teams. Multi-location enterprises may have many contributors posting to social channels, making it difficult — if not impossible — to ensure all locations share high-quality, brand-compliant content across channels.

The Answer: Social Media Management

As social media channels continue to proliferate, so do opportunities for consumers to share feedback and experiences. Investing in a robust social media management solution enables you to scale your operation and overcome the challenges of managing social engagement and advertising across your enterprise.

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“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it”.

Waren BuffettChairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

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Multi-location ManagementA solution built from the ground up for multi-location deployment will deliver features that streamline and simplify social media management at scale. Centrally managed, approved content minimizes risk, simplifies workflows and ensures brand compliance across locations. Automated workflows and approvals ensure compliance with best practices and processes, and make it easier for location managers to be active on social channels.

Complete Social Listening and EngagementFind a solution that enables you to listen and engage on all channels across the across the web — for all your locations — from a single dashboard. For most businesses, the “long tail” of marginal sites aren’t important — focus on Google, Facebook and key industry-specific sites.

Effective Social PublishingMaximize impact by automatically publishing approved, targeted social media campaigns for specific business locations. Look for a solution that enables locations to auto-enroll in enterprise-wide campaigns, to increase participation and maintain control.

Advanced Metrics and ReportingProving the ROI of social media requires that you analyze all data and track your progress. A robust social media management solution will enable you to monitor sentiment across channels over time, and track engagement and reach by location and content. You should also be able to analyze ad performance to optimize spend and effectiveness.

Choosing the Right Social Media Management SolutionHere are some key capabilities to look for in a social media management solution:

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Easy to Implement and UseContributors to your social channels across locations have varying degrees of skill and knowledge — and, they’re often short on time. Make sure the solution you choose is easy to set up and use. Point solutions with too many capabilities may be too confusing for your users — and too expensive to deploy across all your locations.

Integrated with Other Aspects of customer experience (CX) management

Imagine trying to extract insights from data from Facebook and Twitter posts, online reviews on Google and industry-specific sites, and your local listings and websites — then manually combining them for analysis. Managing the data flows in this way across all sources is complex, time-consuming and error prone. You need a single data repository with integrated analysis tools to get a 360-degree view of customer sentiment and your online reputation. This is only possible with a unified platform.

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Success Hinges on a Strong Social PresenceToday, 88% of consumers trust online recommendations and opinions about brands, services and products as much as recommendations from friends and family. But the importance of social media to business success isn’t limited to B2C — 75% of B2B buyers rely on social channels to assist them in making purchasing decisions.

Given these numbers, it’s safe to say that businesses that lack effective social media management will fall behind and lose business to more social-savvy competitors.

Market leaders — in any industry or market sector — will take advantage of social media as a means of connecting with customers, building brand awareness and reputation, and improving customer experience with valuable insights gained from tuning in and taking action.

Reputation.com Platform

Reputation.com’s Social Suite is the only listening and engagement platform built for large, multi-location brands — and the only solution that scales across hundreds or thousands of locations.

Whereas point solutions can be complex and difficult to configure and manage, our platform — coupled with our highly-skilled service management team — ensure you are up and running with minimal headaches.

Built from the ground up for multi-location deployment, Reputation.com’s Social Suite features automated workflows, a content library and templates, and integrates seamlessly with other aspects of online reputation and CX management.

89% of consumers trust online recommendations and opinions about brands, services and products.

75% of B2B buyers rely on social channels to assist them in making purchasing decisions.

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About Reputation.com

Reputation.com delivers the category-leading online reputation management platform for large, multi-location enterprises. We help companies monitor and improve online ratings and reviews, improve customer experience, and drive traffic, visits and revenue. To learn more contact us at sales@reputation.com or visit us at www.reputation.com

Case Study: Retailer Generates 10,000 Inbound Calls through Reputation.com’s Social Media Managed Services

Blog: 5 Tips to Improve Your Social Listening Skills

Video: Reputation.com Social Suite Overview

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